Wallace: Dems are 'fools' to boycott Fox

When Chris Wallace replaced Tony Snow as the host of “Fox News Sunday” in December 2003, the network appeared to take a more moderate approach to Sunday talk.

Unlike Snow, a former Republican speechwriter, Wallace’s broadcasting résumé included nearly three decades at mainstream media staples ABC and NBC.

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And Wallace even snagged Howard Dean — who hadn’t been on the Fox network in five years — as his first guest; fellow presidential hopefuls John F. Kerry, Dick Gephardt and John Edwards rounded out the month.

But this election cycle, said Wallace, some Democrats aren’t “playing ball” with him — or with Fox News.

On a recent Sunday morning, shortly after refereeing a debate between Karl Rove and Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Wallace talked to Politico about the Democrats’ lack of appearances on Fox News, the “liberal bias” at competing networks and how November’s television ratings prove that while his show remains in fourth place nationwide, it’s on the upswing in Washington.

For Sunday talk shows, thriving in the D.C. ratings — although clearly trumped in size by New York — provides bragging rights over which show reaches more political insiders.

But more importantly, since the Sunday shows’ objective is not only to reflect on the past week’s events but to get political leaders to break news and move the conversation forward in the newspapers and the blogosphere on Monday morning, it’s essential for both leading Republicans and leading Democrats to reach members of D.C.’s chattering class.

“I think the Democrats are damn fools [for] not coming on Fox News,” Wallace said. “And my guess is that once you get a nominee, they probably will come on, because they know that we get a lot of voters they are going to need if they are going to win the election.”

So far, Wallace has interviewed Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Joe Biden and Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; both Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. Edwards have declined.

The Edwards campaign confirmed that the candidate declined but did not elaborate further. The Obama campaign did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Aside from his hourlong Sunday show, the Democratic candidates will not participate in any Fox News-sponsored debates, leaving Wallace to moderate three Republican contests over the course of 2007.

“Just imagine if the Republicans, under pressure from right-to-life groups, refused to appear on CNN or MSNBC,” Wallace said.

“I think there would be holy unshirted hell. I think there would be such talk about these people being captives of the extreme right wing and why are they afraid to answer questions. And I think the absence of that is very telling.

“At this point, it has become kind of a loyalty test inside the Democratic Party, ... pandering to the far-left-wing,” Wallace added. “And we live with it.”

Despite missing some candidates from the other side of the aisle, Wallace — along with the Fox public relations team — will happily boast that in the D.C. market, there have been big gains.

That’s been evident in the past month as influential media blogs like FishbowlDC and TVNewser seized upon the November ratings — the latter declaring in a headline “Washington Likes Wallace.”